Later that day, Lin Feng sat in a private booth at a net cafe, the glow of the monitor illuminating his face.
He flipped through the notebook in his hands - pages filled with scribbled notes, dates, company names, and numbers he had remembered from his previous life.
After a moment, he closed it with a sigh.
I've been too ambitious.
He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling.
Investing in stocks and crypto could certainly be a great way to make money. He knew that better than anyone. But it was all... unstable. Unreliable. And more importantly, long-term.
While he knew which companies would rise, most of those gains would happen over extended periods.
The earliest opportunity he could recall was Bitcoin. It was worth about 60,000 yuan at the moment and would reach a peak of around 350,000 yuan sometime in 2021. Or almost 800,000 yuan sometime in 2025.
There were other peaks too, but those were even further away.
The same applied to other companies. It was all just too long-term.
And that felt like a waste.
It was better to make his money work right now. As long as he earned profit, he would increase his system balance and gain even more passive income to invest in those long-term opportunities later.
Or at least, that's what he thought.
He turned his attention back to the computer screen before him.
Listings for private tutoring filled the page.
This was the reason he had come here - to scout the situation.
After hours of research, he had realized that the easiest method to make money right now was through private tutoring. Luckily, he had reincarnated before the double reduction policy was implemented, so for-profit private tutoring was still possible.
He glanced around the booth.
The reason he was scouting this location was simple: he couldn't tutor from the dorm. He couldn't expect his roommates to conform to his schedule, and renting an apartment was still far out of his budget.
So this place would have to do.
It cost about 20 yuan an hour to rent a private booth. And he could tutor for a minimum of 50 yuan an hour.
At least he'd be making something.
Not that the net profit mattered all that much. If the system really worked the way he thought it did, whatever he earned would be added to his Total System Balance and become permanent passive income.
That was the real prize.
He scrolled through the listings carefully, examining each one.
Most required qualifications he didn't have or experience he couldn't prove. Some offered decent pay but demanded inconvenient hours. Others demanded physical tutoring which he couldn't make.
Then he found one that caught his eye.
English lessons for a high school student. 60 yuan per hour.
His English was quite good. While the price was on the lower end for English lessons, this one allowed online tutoring so he didn't mind. This was more of an experiment anyway.
He clicked on the listing and sent a message.
A while later, the other party responded.
Lin Feng discussed the details with them - schedule, location, expectations - and they finally reached an agreement.
They would test him for one hour the following day, then decide whether to continue.
The test session would also be paid, so there was no risk on his end.
Lin Feng didn't see any problems with this arrangement.
After all, if he really received payment this time and it went to the system, he would confirm his theory once and for all.
And if it didn't?
Then it would be better to put this business idea on hold. Paying 20 yuan to earn 60 yuan wasn't all that impressive if it didn't contribute to his system balance. He could use that time and money for something else instead.
With the arrangement settled, Lin Feng minimized the tutoring website and opened a new tab.
He typed in a search: English grammar lessons.
While his English was decent, he spoke instinctively. He didn't exactly remember the technical stuff. Grammar rules. Sentence structures. The things students actually needed to learn for exams.
Video after video loaded on the screen.
He clicked on the first one and began watching.
Slowly, his mind started to refresh. Terms he had long forgotten resurfaced. Rules he had once memorized in school came back to him piece by piece.
He grabbed his notebook and began taking notes.
Subject-verb agreement. Tenses. Articles. Prepositions.
Page after page filled with his handwriting.
He wasn't sure if this experiment would really work.
But just in case it did, he needed to go all out so he could secure the job.
…
Wednesday, September 16th.
Lin Feng sat at the study desk in their dorm room, a textbook open before him.
Zhang Wei was beside him, nose buried in his own materials as usual.
After watching English lessons the previous day, Lin Feng had come to a humbling realization - his memory wasn't as good as he thought. While he was decent at general knowledge, the kind you pick up from living life, he wasn't particularly strong at book knowledge.
The technical stuff. The things you needed to pass exams.
If he wanted to do things right this time around, he still needed to keep his grades up.
Fortunately, he had been a top student back then. Relearning these concepts came easier than expected. The information was still there, buried somewhere in his mind - it just needed to be dusted off.
Li Jun spent most of the morning on his bunk, earphones in, fingers tapping away at his phone as he played game after game. But sometime around mid-morning, he climbed down and quietly joined the two of them at the desk, pulling out his own textbook.
No words were exchanged. He simply began studying alongside them.
As for Chen Ming?
Nowhere to be found. As always.
…
When lunchtime arrived, the three of them decided to head out together.
As they walked down the street near campus, a familiar figure came into view.
Chen Ming stood at the corner, a stack of fliers in hand, enthusiastically pitching to anyone who walked by. Most people ignored him, but he didn't seem discouraged in the slightest.
"Chen Ming!" Zhang Wei called out.
Chen Ming turned, his face lighting up when he spotted them.
"Perfect timing!" He jogged over, tucking the remaining fliers under his arm. "I was just about to take a break. You guys heading to lunch?"
"Yeah," Lin Feng said. "Want to join?"
"Absolutely."